December 06, 2013

Cowboys believe a fullback can help them be more physical, and the fullback agrees

The Cowboys, heading for their coldest regular-season game ever, believe a fullback will help them be more physical.

They signed Tyler Clutts this week, and he was running first team in practice as the Cowboys prepared for a Monday night game in Chicago, where the low is expected to be in the teens.

“We feel like he can help us in some way with the physical nature of our football team,” coach Jason Garrett said Friday. “When you have a true fullback, that can certainly have a positive impact on what you are trying to get done there.”

Garrett said the Cowboys are pleased with their tight ends and with the way their personnel groups have operated. But Clutts, who has played in Chicago, was a player they had their eye on, he said.

“”We have tried to use a variety of personnel groups to attack defenses in different ways,” Garrett said. “This might add an element to that.”

Clutts said Thursday the key to a cold-weather attack is physicalness.

“Because when it gets cold, you tend to second-guess selling out on the contact,” he said. “Especially a guy like me in my position, I’ve got to control that instinct and turn it on even more because the guy may be hesitating on the other side.”